Former Fed Governor Adrianna Coogler resigned abruptly after Chairman Jerome Powell refused to grant her an exemption to address financial holdings that violated the central bank’s ethics rules, a Fed official said.
Coogler also faced an investigation by internal Fed regulators into his recent financial disclosures before resigning in August, according to a person familiar with the matter. document Published Saturday.
Fed ethics officials declined to confirm Kugler’s latest disclosure posted on the Office of Government Ethics website and referred the matter to the Fed’s inspector general, documents show. OGE also declined to confirm Kugler’s new disclosure.
The disclosures revealed details related to financial activities that violated the Fed’s internal ethics rules.
Coogler announced on August 1 that she would Resign The decision came into effect on August 8 after she missed the central bank’s July 29-30 policy meeting without giving any reason. At the time, the Fed said her absence from the meeting was due to “personal issues.”
Before that meeting, Kugler sought permission to conduct financial transactions to address what Fed officials said were impermissible financial holdings. It was unclear what assets were involved in the request.
Coogler requested a waiver from rules that require senior Fed officials to obtain clearance before conducting certain financial transactions and prohibit them from trading during so-called blackout periods during policy meetings, according to the official. Powell declined the request.
Coogler’s resignation gives U.S. President Donald Trump an opportunity to fill a vacancy on the Fed’s board sooner than expected as he puts pressure on policymakers to sharply lower interest rates. The vacancy was ultimately secured by Trump ally Stephen Millan, who took an unpaid leave of absence from his post as White House economic adviser and called Repeatedly called for a quick rate cut.
Transaction prohibited
Newly released documents reveal previously undisclosed individual stock trades in 2024 that bar Fed officials and their immediate family members from trading, including Materialize NV, Southwest AirlinesKaVo Group, apple company and caterpillar.
Some of the prohibited transactions also constitute violations because they were executed during a blackout period when transactions are not allowed during each policy meeting.
These include buying Cava stock on March 13, 2024, days before the March 19-20 meeting, and selling Southwest Airlines stock on April 29, 2024, just before the Fed’s April 30-May 1 meeting. The disclosure also lists several fund transactions that occurred during the lockdown period.
A footnote related to the sale of Materialize NV stock on January 2, 2024, reads: “Consistent with her disclosure on September 15, 2024, certain trading activity was conducted by Dr. Kugler’s spouse without Dr. Kugler’s knowledge, and she confirmed that her spouse did not intend to violate any rules or policies.”
Coogler, who was appointed to the Fed by President Joe Biden in September 2023, declined to comment.
financial disclosure
In the disclosure released Saturday, Fed ethics officer Sean Croston said, “In accordance with our standard practices and policies, matters related to this disclosure were referred earlier this year by the Office of Ethics of the Board of Governors to the Office of the Independent Inspector General of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.”
The financial disclosure, filed about a month after Kugler left the company, covers the years 2024 and 2025 following her resignation. Senior Fed officials are required to file disclosures annually and after leaving the central bank, and report on financial transactions regularly.
“Earlier this year, we received a referral from the Board of Directors’ Ethics Division regarding certain matters related to this document,” a spokesperson for the Fed’s Office of Inspector General said in a statement. “We have launched an investigation and, consistent with our common practice, we cannot comment further until the investigation is concluded.”
Previous violations
In a previously released 2024 periodic financial disclosure, Coogler admitted that her spouse violated the Federal Reserve’s investment and trading rules when she completed four purchases of Apple and Cava stock.
The transactions violated Federal Reserve rules limiting how senior Fed officials and their spouses and minor children invest and trade.
Kugler said her spouse purchased the items without her knowledge. It was disclosed that the shares were later divested and that the Fed’s designated ethics officer determined that Kugler complied with applicable laws and regulations.
Powell introduces tougher measures investment restrictions 2022 Deals for Policymakers and Central Bank Senior Staff. Previously, several senior officials disclosed unusual trading activity in 2020.
Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan both announced early retirements after the revelations, with Rosengren citing poor health. The Fed’s internal regulator eventually cleared both cases of legal misconduct, but scold them Undermining public confidence in central banks.
The Fed said at the time that the new rules were aimed at increasing public confidence in the fairness and integrity of policymakers and increased financial disclosure requirements, among other measures.
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts who has long called for stricter ethics rules at the central bank, issued a statement on Saturday calling for bipartisan legislation to “make the Federal Reserve more transparent and accountable.”